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Topic: Eggs is honey super (Read 996 times)

I have the hives that I am looking to get a honey crop from so far. I am only in my second year and didn't have any medium frames with comb so I put the supers on with bare foundation. The bees quickly built out the comb and started filling the frames with honey. I had 3-4 frames that had the top 75% filled with honey so I figured I would not use a queen excluder and keep these frames in the middle thinking the queen would not want to lay in frames that were nearly all honey. I inspected the supers yesterday and found a frame with eggs in open cells at the bottom. All the others were clear of eggs so I removed these eggs with my hive tool and placed the frame on the outside of the honey super figuring the bees would rebuild the comb. I also reversed the 2 deep hive bodies but didn't find the queen.My question is should I go ahead and use an excluder now? There is so much conflicting information about the use of an excluder and being this is my first "honey" year I didn't want to put up a barrier that would reduce the amount of the crop. I also tried an Imrie shim but the bees were not using it and it created a lot of burr comb so I removed it. A hole in the honey supers is not being used either. Should I shift the supers forward so the bees can enter directly into the bottom of the super? Would using an excluder "strip" just down the middle section of the supers help?Thanks-Howard

My question is should I go ahead and use an excluder now? There is so much conflicting information about the use of an excluder and being this is my first "honey" year I didn't want to put up a barrier that would reduce the amount of the crop. I also tried an Imrie shim but the bees were not using it and it created a lot of burr comb so I removed it. a hole in the honey supers is not being used either. Should I shift the supers forward so the bees can enter directly into the bottom of the super? Would using an excluder "strip" just down the middle section of the supers help?Thanks-Howard

That's up to you. This is the very reason I don't run an unlimited brood nest anymore. I do put a shim in and create a gap between the excluder and supers so that the field workers can get in. My best advice is, where it is ok to go to an excluder now. Make sure the queen stays in the brood chamber.

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Would using an excluder "strip" just down the middle section of the supers help?

I never tried this but if you do send me a PM and let me know how it works out. I heard also that using a plastic or paper plate is a good way to keep the queen down too, since she generally stays in the middle of the nest, but I am sure like anything, this isn't fool proof.

i would leave it alone. the brood will hatch out and as we go toward fall, the bees will backfill the honey supers with honey. if they do not, you can just cut the brood out before you extract.

the more you mess with them, the more you slow them down.

you could use an excluder or use one sideways, but you'll have to figure out where your queen is first. excluders tend to slow down the works, so that's a consideration.

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I use an excluder and an upper entrance on the super. This is one of those "preference" things and you will get people on both sides that will argue about it until someone passes out and the one still standing will claim victory.